Lecture Two – Gazing at Identity

The aim of this lecture was to help us understand the complexity of identity.

Gillian Rose wrote a book called Visual Methodologies, where she wrote about the unconscious, subjectivity, scopholia, voyeurism, fantasy and desire.

Psychoanalysis is used to analyse how visual imagery affects the spectator. Visual imagery addresses our sense of self, and psychoanalysis can offer ‘readings’. However, it is important to note that this is just a theory.

Scopophilla is the pleasure in looking. Freud says that scopophilla is one of the basic unconscious drives. Feminists use scopophilla to explain how imagery affects how we view our own sexuality and sexual difference.

An ad by City Dweller shows the subjects body language as very subtle, with a slight reclining back.

Freud says that psychoanalysis teaches us to objectify people, and this can be seen in American Apparels ads, which use ‘porn chic’. For example, in one advert, Lauren Phoenix is only wearing American Apparral socks. American Apparal wanted the viewers to have pleasure looking at her, just as it is implied that she is masturbating. However, the target audience of young women were offended, and it received bad publicity because at the time the founder, Dov Charney, had been accused of sexual harassment.

Laura Mulvey studied one of the main theories of psychoanalysis, ‘The Gaze’. Mulvey analysed Hollywood cinema and came to the conclusion that action hero films are sexist as they portray the gaze as powerful and male. They make viewers look at identity from a male point of view. She wrote her essay (Visual Pleasures and Narrative Cinema) at the time of the 2^nd wave feminist movement, and when the Equal Pay Act in the UK had been passed.

Mulvey also refers to Jacques Lacan’s ‘mirror stage’ [Lacanian theory], which examines childrens first experiences of self recognition, i.e. looking at their reflection in a mirror. Lacan says that when a child sees themselves in a mirror for the first time, they experience a slight loss of ego, which is similar to the loss of ego in mass media imagery, e.g. watching a movie such as Tarzan can lose our own sense of ego, due to our increased identification with a projected ego.  This is similar for advertising, where the imagery is designed for the audience to identify with the product, service or idea. Identifying yourself with models, according to psychoanalysis, heightens loss of self (ego) self esteem.

Different types of gaze include:

·      Intra-diagetic gaze subjects gazing at one another within the image

·      Extra-diagetic  gaze – a direct address to the viewer, i.e. when the subject looks directly at the viewer

·      Averted gaze – looking away from the viewer, almost disinterested (common with men)

Creative Interventions:

Advertising offers alternative subjectivities. Creativity can disrupt the gaze, for example Teller’s photo of Vivienne Westwood is different to most portrayals of women and their gaze. Firstly, Westwood is in control – her gaze is looking afar/ disinterested, which is normally reserved for men (averted gaze). Moreover, due to the sexual position of reclining, and being nude, the image is unexpected due to Westwood being a mature lady, and not having the stereotypical ‘perfect’ figure. Teller references the Olympian painting, which was shocking itself as in 1863 it would have been very unconventional to depict  a (nude + reclining) prostitute, [although still shocking today], and her gaze was sultry and cold, instead of soft and submissive.

Claude Cahun challenged the stereotypical female gaze through her self portraits (photos), where she acted out identities of both male and female.

Richardson studied Voyeurism, where the subject is unaware we are looking . For example, photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia created a fashion advert, which objectified the male, and therefore changed the female gaze from submissive to dominant, therefore challenging Mulvey’s theory. Richardson often appears in his images, e.g. in the intra-diagetic gaze, by looking at his subject. This makes him and the subject equally exposed.

Powerade Campaign produced an advert that depicted GB athletes naked whilst exercising – it made the viewer focus on the grace of the athletic body.  The lighting made their skin look like marble, which the Greek statues were made from. However, the Greeks only depicted the males as naked, whilst this advert had both a female and male athlete (Rebecca Romero and Gregor Tait). This equality can be seen as a creative intervention. The viewer is encouraged to look at their drive and muscles, rather than their sexuality, however I feel that if the athletes were fully clothed, people would concentrate less on their sexuality.

Photographer Herb Ritts produced a photo called ‘Fred with Tires’, which can be seen as creative intervention as the male subject has a direct view gaze, which is normally reserved for female subjects.

Although being transgender was illegal in the 19^th Century, it is becoming more acceptable nowadays. For example, an Other Stories campaign used transgender models, as well as having the whole production team being transgender. The campaign encouraged pleasure in looking at transgender identities.

H&M created a campaign depicting women in different scenarios/behaviours to what people stereotypically see them as. It contrasted with the soundtrack of ‘She’s a lady’, by Tom Jones, which can be viewed as quite sexist.

Mulvey has received a fair share of criticism, such as:

• Kaplan & Silverman, who argue that men are not always the protagonist.
• Neale and Dyer, who disagreed with the idea that men are never sexually objectified in mainstream cinema. I agree with them as sexism works both ways, however it must be said that sexism against women is practiced on a much wider scale, and therefore, my opinion is that concentrating on the sexist female gaze should not be criticised.
• Messaris, who said that the homosexual gaze needs to be considered, not just the female gaze
• Others have argued that the gaze linked to social power rather than to gender.

Identity Constructed:

Some post-modernist theorists, such as V. Burr, say that identity is a social construct, i.e. not determined by biology.

Sir John Hegarty suggests that advertising is a mirror to society (attitudes, fears, desires and values).  Therefore the ‘gaze’ was not invented by advertisers, but is just a reflection of society.

Rolling Stones band members had a large say in their brand identity, and it was John Pasche and Jagger who chose the logo, based on the Hindu goddess Kali.  The brand identity of Rolling Stones is rebellion, sex and seduction, which the logo expresses.

References:

-Janine Sykes Lecture